Have you observed trainers doing things like this?

Before beginning her presentation, a trainer tells the audience, “I had planned to show you this wonderful video with actors from The Office singing this song “Let’s Get Ethical,” to the tune of “Let’s Get Physical.”  Unfortunately, I can’t get the DVD to work, so I can’t show it, but let me tell you, it would be really funny if you could see it.”

Yes, I actually saw a trainer do just this a few years ago. This example brings to mind the “Never complain, never explain” rule.  I’ve seen this pithy saying variously attributed to Benjamin Disraeli, Henry Ford and Katherine Hepburn.  Regardless of the originator, it always struck me as a little dubious.  “Never?”  Isn’t that a recipe for being a jerk?

However, with a little adjustment for rhetorical excess, this saying does describe a sound principle for instructors.  It’s nearly always a mistake to apologize to the audience.  In the example described, the trainer was smart to try to use a training aid, but when that did not pan out, she unwisely demonstrated to the audience not just her incompetence with technology, but her poor judgment. If she had never apologized for failing to get the DVD to work, the audience would never have known of her failure.  Experienced presenters understand that in many cases the audience will never know if the speaker made a mistake unless he or she draws attention to the error by apologizing.

The same principle applies to other mistakes made during your presentation, explains speech expert Richard Zeoli:

When you make a mistake, no one cares but you:  Even the most accomplished public speaker will make mistakes. Yet it is important to remember that the only one who cares about any given mistake is the one doing the speaking.

People’s attention spans constantly wander.  In fact, most people only absorb about 20 percent of a speaker’s message.  The other 80 percent is internalized visually.  This ratio is true in nearly everything: a football game, a favorite television show, and even a heart-to-heart conversation.  The point is that when you make a mistake, the audience rarely even notices.  The most important thing a speaker can do after making a mistake is to keep going.  Don’t stop and – unless the mistake was truly earth shattering – never apologize to the audience for a minor slip.  Unless they are reading the speech during your delivery, the audience won’t know if you left out a word, said the wrong name, or skipped a page.

“Never” apologize?  Probably a mistake.  “Almost never” apologize?  Sounds about right.

Since the publication many years ago of Dan Gookin’s DOS for Dummies, the first book in the successful  Dummies line of technical books, I’ve been ambivalent about the company’s naming and marketing strategy.  However, when a book’s content is good enough, who cares about the name?

When I began giving important presentations in the mid-90s, I was not the world’s most confident public speaker. I pretty much read, or at least surveyed, just about every instructional book I could find.  Presentations for Dummies was by far the best practical reference I found, and I have not encountered a better book since.

While “humor consultant” author Malcolm Kushner includes some technical information (including obscure-but-useful tips), he focuses on human factors and practical pointers.  The current edition is a revision of the 1996 original (“Successful Presentations for Dummies”).  These links to the Dummies.com website provide examples of Kushner’s down-to-earth approach:

• Handling Problems during a Presentation
•  Preparing for a Virtual Presentation
• Avoiding Stage Fright
• Using Stories as a Presentation Tool

Chapter 13, on fielding audience questions, is available in PDF format.

Google Product Search has information on multiple places the book can be purchased.

How many times have you attended training where the trainer seemed nervous, skeptical, just going through the motions, or otherwise acting like they just didn’t want to be there?  Perhaps there were attempts at self-deprecating humor, like referring to how much coffee the trainer would need to get through the training?

When we pause for reflection, we intuitively realize that trainer behavior like this cannot be good.  An article by Dr. Brian Fitch for police trainers in the December 2010 FBI Law Enforcement Bulletin entitled “Attitudes and Performance: The Impact of Self-Fulfilling Prophecies” explains that multiple scientific studies confirm what our intuition tells us:

Hundreds of studies have demonstrated that, on average, educators’ assumptions do influence the actions and achievements of their pupils. If teachers anticipate that students will succeed, they usually do. On the other hand, when they expect learners to perform poorly, they often are not disappointed. In either case, pupils rise to the level of teacher expectations—either positive or negative. Generally speaking, trainers who anticipate more from students by setting higher standards, providing encouragement, and offering positive feedback inspire higher levels of performance than those who lack faith in the ability and motivation of their charges.

While the earliest studies began with school-age children, subsequent research has examined the role of instructor suppositions with salespeople, athletes, pilots, law enforcement officers, and military personnel. [Footnote omitted].

Perhaps the most instructive message in Dr. Fitch’s article is the emphasis on non-verbal communications from instructor:

Studies in communication and psychology have suggested that people rely on three channels to convey their emotions.

• Verbal (words and phrases)
• Paralanguage (tone, pitch, and volume)
• Nonverbal (facial expressions, eye contact, hand gestures, posture, and distance)

What is surprising, however, is the relatively minor role played by the spoken word in communicating emotion. In fact, communication studies have indicated that the majority of emotions, including how instructors truly feel about a student’s performance and potential, are communicated nonverbally. More specifically, fully 55 percent of the emotional impact of a communicator’s message is nonverbal, with 38 percent accounted for by paralanguage and only 7 percent explained by spoken words.

The apparent power of nonverbal communication reinforces the importance of sending consistent messages. When instructors say one thing but broadcast a different message nonverbally, they invariably undermine the credibility of their communication. For example, law enforcement firearms trainers can significantly undermine their effectiveness by telling students that anyone can shoot well while, at the same time, displaying subtle cues of frustration, such as exhaling deeply, looking disgusted, or speaking in a patronizing voice to recruits having trouble attaining a qualifying score.

Students, however, are surprisingly adept at picking up nonverbal cues, such as subtle changes in facial expression, eye contact, posture, or tone of voice. If instructors send mixed messages, learners invariably will pay greater attention to the nonverbal one, especially if it is negative. [Emphasis added, footnotes omitted]:

Fitch, “Attitudes and Performance: The Impact of Self-Fulfilling Prophecies“

Of course, these instructional principles apply just as well to standards of conduct training.  If your body language and other cues send the message that the training will be boring and worthless, you are creating a self-fulfilling prophesy.  You must make sure your nonverbal communications are not undermining your verbal training message. 

Mere awareness of this potential trap should go a long way toward preventing the problem.  In future Training Tips columns we will address methods for building confidence and other techniques that should further strengthen performance.  In the meantime, we welcome your suggestions in the Comments section below.

Are you a good trainer? Many people approach training with trepidation, which leads to poor results. We will be providing a weekly collection of Training Tips to help increase trainer confidence. These posts supplement our Presentations category.

Why am I well qualified to provide training tips? Because I consider myself to have minimal aptitude for training, I have studied the art of training extensively, and gotten good results.